Buoy at Ruoholahti.

Red Cottage and a Potato Field

Peace and quiet in Puu-Käpylä.

A cliche Finnish dream house is “punainen tupa ja perunamaa” (a red cottage and a potato field) and we have those even in Helsinki. I guess today many people would prefer a bit easier and more practical way of life.

Chinese New Year

A dance troupe from Beijing.

Performance from last Sunday.

An Amur Tiger on the Snow

Amur tiger, also known as Siberian tiger, is the largest cat on earth.

They are rare, they are endangered and they are huge. I’ve been very close to wild lions and still I was very impressed when I saw an amur tiger for the first time at Korkeasaari Zoo. There are only about 450 individuals left in the wild mostly in eastern Russia.

In 2006 the zoo put to sleep an amur tiger called Manninen causing a lot of publicity. How can they kill a member of an endangered specie? Manninen, father of five, had done his job and it was the time for a British male to get his chance to enrich the amur tiger gene pool at Korkesaari. Unfortunately zoos around the world operate on limited budgets and an invidual had to be sacrificed so that the specie could survive.

Snowing at Mäkelänkatu

Chinese New Year Crowd

People watching Chinese New Year performances.

Like in many other city daily photo blogs, there haven’t been so many people in my photos so this will improve my average.

Beijing Opera with Finnish Characteristics

Antti Silvennoinen performed at the Chinese New Year Festival in Helsinki.

He has spent a few months in China studying Beijing opera and he is going back to learn more.

There were more people than I expected watching the different performances. The performers were both Chinese and Finns who are interested in Chinese culture.

City Planning

Could you believe that this is one of the most central locations in Helsinki?

Opposite to this is the parliament house and between these two is the main street of Helsinki.

There used to be VR warehouses. Many objected their demolition as the warehouses were used for many kinds of activities and public events. Now they are building Musiikkitalo (Music House) to the area which sounds like a yet another monument building.

During the recent years the area has been often in the news. Click the warehouse link to see a great photo of the 2006 fire.

Where is the Tram?

Obsolete tram tracks at Arabia.

Fishing with Skates on

Ice fishing at Vanhankaupunginlahti.

Different kind of skaters have also arrived to Helsinki to take part in the European Figure Skating Championships.

Photos from a Helsinki blogger taivasalla.net can be seen in the background while the skaters are in the kiss and cry area where they are waiting for their points. Taivasalla.net used to be a daily photo blog, it contains a big archive and there are new posts frequently.